A dozen finalists cooked up their creations at a Dunkin’ Donuts bake-off. At stake was the selection of the chain’s next limited-release doughnut, which will be featured in a company-wide giveaway on June 5.

Steve Adams

They designed virtual doughnuts on their home computers as part of a promotional contest this spring. On Thursday, they got to make the real thing.

A dozen finalists cooked up their creations at a Dunkin’ Donuts bake-off. At stake was the selection of the chain’s next limited-release doughnut, which will be featured in a company-wide giveaway on June 5.

Michelle Ventura, 17, a Boston Latin School student, gave her father credit for inspiring her “Chocolate Monkey” variety consisting of a bananas Foster filling and chocolate topping.

“Last summer, we went to an ice cream shop where there were frozen bananas covered in chocolate,” she said. “He loved that so I decided to combine that in a doughnut.”

Earlier this spring, thousands of contestants chose from a list of ingredients on the Dunkin’ Donuts Web site and designed their own specialties. Twelve finalists from around the country arrived at Dunkin’ Donuts University, the company’s test kitchen in Braintree, and spent an hour assembling and baking their creations.

Toting trays of the finished product, they entered a conference room to face a panel of four judges including Dunkin’ executives and food writers.

Caitlyn Vandervelde of Coventry, R.I., spent her 20th birthday baking a tray of “Grandma’s Blueberry Maple” doughnuts with a graham cracker crunch topping. The Bryant College student took the inspiration for the recipe from her grandmother’s blueberry coffee cake.

“At parties it was always a huge hit, so I figured I’d share it with everybody else,” Vandervelde said.

Online voting for the finalists ended this week, and the winning concoction will be announced on June 5. The grand prize winner gets $12,000.

On that day, Dunkin’ Donuts stores will offer a free doughnut with the purchase of any beverage.

The contest is part of Canton-based Dunkin’ Brands Inc.’s attempt to re-emphasize its traditional baked goods sales. Most of the company’s product development in recent years has concentrated on espresso-based drinks and a new line of breakfast sandwiches.